The utterances were originally made under other circumstances, and meant different things.
The clever use of quotes used to be a rhetorical device which demonstrated the erudition of the quoter, not the clarity of his thought. It also stole from the reputation of the quoted. But now in this age of search engines, any fool can do it. And any two fools can engage in a contest of quotations.
There is nothing Thomas Jefferson said two centuries ago that is relevant today. Of course, anything he said during his lifetime, if properly selected and emphasized, could be used to prove anything you wanted today. Its like the Bible, or Bob Dylan's lyrics. There's a line in there for every situation.
The same goes for Thucydides.
"The strong do what they can, and the weak accept what they must."
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All quotes are taken out of context.
The whole thread (40 posts)
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